Trump Administration/Executive Ethics

"Trump may not be held accountable for his actions in a court of law, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t break laws getting elected in 2016. That’s a matter for the court of public opinion. And the case against Trump is strong." - Paul Seamus Ryan in a Just Security Op-Ed

“Paul Manafort is one of the most egregious actors in the system and the fact that he was so closely connected to President Trump and the Trump campaign is indicative of how poorly this administration views ethics and ethical issues," said Aaron Scherb, director of legislative affairs for the nonpartisan advocacy group Common Cause,

"These statements do the opposite of what he intends," said Paul Ryan, a top lawyer for Common Cause. "They don't prove his innocence. They, in fact, underscore his guilt."

“You have to follow the money and figure out who was in on the decisions and who wasn’t in on the decisions," said Stephen Spaulding, chief of strategy for the watchdog group Common Cause. "We don’t have the answers to that. “It sounds like it wasn’t just Donald Trump and Michael Cohen sitting in a room together.”

Manafort’s conviction increases the need for Congress to protect Mueller’s investigation from White House interference, said Karen Hobert Flynn, president of the Common Cause, a government watchdog group. "Justice must be allowed to run its course through the Special Counsel’s investigation," she said. "Americans expect Congress to put country before party and exercise its oversight responsibilities to allow the full truth to be unearthed and shared with the nation."

The Department of Justice is sending a strong message that it will enforce the nation’s campaign finance laws. The blatant violations of the law that Common Cause outlined in our complaints to the Department of Justice concerning hush money payments to Stormy Daniels are among those that Cohen pleaded guilty to today. Cohen’s guilty plea directly implicates President Trump in related campaign finance violations detailed in Common Cause complaints.